CUA Experts Can Discuss President's Search for Supreme Court Nominee

Experts at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., are available to discuss President Barack Obama's search for a Supreme Court justice to replace David H. Souter who is planning to retire. For assistance in reaching sources, contact public affairs staffers Katie Lee or Mary McCarthy at 202-319-5600.

JUDICIAL PHILOSOPHIES OF THE COURT - Dennis Coyle, associate professor of politics and Life Cycle Institute fellow, is an expert on the judicial philosophies of Supreme Court justices, on the confirmation process and on constitutional law, particularly property rights, federalism, the First Amendment and the equal protection clause. Coyle is also an adjunct scholar of the American Enterprise Institute.

JUDICIAL REVIEW AND OBAMA'S CONCEPT OF THE "UNITARY EXECUTIVE" - Robert A. Destro, professor at the Columbus School of Law and founder/co-director of CUA's Interdisciplinary Program in Law and Religion, is co-author of the leading law school textbook on religious liberty. He has served as a commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights and as outside counsel on voting rights issues to the Ohio Secretary of State. He has written and lectured extensively on the relationship of the Supreme Court to the "power politics" of judicial review, including an in-depth analysis of judicial review during and after the New Deal.

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP - Phillip Henderson, associate professor and chair of the Department of Politics, has expertise in U.S. political leadership since 1789 and the presidential selection process for Supreme Court nominees. Henderson can discuss some of the partisan moments in the court's history, such as conservative opposition to Abe Fortas during Lyndon Johnson's presidency, the defeat of Clement Haynesworth and G. Harrold Carswell under President Richard Nixon, and the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase for partisan reasons under President Thomas Jefferson.